A STOCKTAKING NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 85, 7 October 1931, Page 8

A STOCKTAKING NEEDED

(To the Editor.) Sir, —As a man in the street I should like to voice in the Press an opinion which has been freely expressed in conversations, on the subject o£ the cost of education, and nioro particularly of free secondary education. Gradually New Zealand has widened the facilities for boys and girls to enjoy, free except for books, primary and secondai-y schooling until to-day it is indeed a dull child who is not able to have two years at a secondary school after a year in the sixth standard. This system has been in operation long enough to enable us to take stock and assess its benefits. In attempting to do so, let me confess that my knowledge is of city and large town children and my remarks will not necessarily apply to country scholai's. We sec each year a very large draft of children passing from the primary to the secondary schools. Secondary education is not compulsory so what are the reasons for so many, carrying on. I would say the following are the main reasons:— (1) Because the child has shown merit. This is the only reason that counts. (2) Because socially, it is considered the thing. Parents and children dislike departing from established custom^ (3) Desire to participate in secondary school games. (4) Hankering for soft-handed jobs. The result is that many parents en-. deavour to keep their children at school and clothe them a little better than primary school requirements, when many of those children would be better employed at work, helping in the upkeep of the home. At the end of one' year a large percentage of parents feel the pinch, and having qualified the children, to their own satisfaction, as secondarily educated the children are put to work. Thus a year of the child's time and a year's educational cost, has been wasted. A further large percentage stay for two years, but are then put to such work as they can find, often with no prospects and where education beyond primary standard is uncalled for. In these cases two years have been wasted. Any suggestion to reduce this tremendous wastage should be carefully analysed and the outcry of secondary teachers' organisations should not be ignored, but carefully examined at the same time. Let us try and ascertain whether their argument is in the interests of the children or the interests of their jobs. _■■ I am, no advocate of the denying of education to pupils of merit, but I do see every day examples of young men and women who cannot find a niche for themselves in life because they have been educated for a field which is overcrowded, and they have not the merit and ability which will enable them to make a place for themselves i:i the professional or semiprofessional world. Tf secondary education wore more limited, we would find that the trades and businesses would, benefit by having a greater supply of followers, many of (hem poor iicndoinists, but excellent technicians, and muu and women of groat practical ability. Tho primary ami 'secondary industries

would Ijk given an 'uplift and become'more prosperous because the practical-.- brains of the rising generation would be at their disposal. Instead of having LL.B.'s even in prosperous times searching-for .work at £3 a week, the improved distribution of brains, in vocations to suit,' would niake for more work for all. Farmers,) masters, and men in industry, and business men and women would all be more prosperous and the professions more limited to those whose brains are of the type made for learning. In a word, avenues for personal advancement would be widened, and there would be fewer disappointed parents. -I am, etc., SCHOLARSHIPS..